Refrigerator



(No Model.)

B. A. STEVENS.

' RBPRIGERATOR.

' Patented Aug.

jy W

N. PETERS. Phmuuolmpmr. wnnlngim. D. t;

" f UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

BENJAMIN ABBOTT sTEvENs, or TOLEDO, OHIO.

-REFRIGERATOa SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 369,212, dated August 30, 1887.

' Application filed December 14, 1886. Serial No. 221,552. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, BENJAMIN ABBOTT STE` VENs, a citizen of the United States, residing at Toledo, in the county of Lucas and State of Ohio, have invented new and useful Improvements in Refrigerators, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in the internal construction of refrigerators and ice-boxes, and has for its object the particular construction and arrangement of the ice-pans of a cooler or refrigerator, so as to obtain the most perfect circulation of cold air in the cool room or preserving apartment, and at the same time to so construct it as to greatly economize the space or room, and reduce the cost of construction by reducing the height that it has been necessary to build them heretofore to obtain a perfect circulation of cold air. I accomplish these objects by the mechanism illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure l is a front elevation of arefrigerator or cooler,with a portion of the front broken away, so as to show the internal construction of it. Fig. 2 is a vertical transverse section on the line y 1/ of Fig. l. Fig. 3 is a horizontal section on the line .fr as of Fig. l. Fig. 4 is a detail View of the ice-pans built in two 0r more grades or sections.

Similar letters refer to similar parts througl out the several views.

A A represent the exterior double walls of a refrigerator or cooler as they are now built, with the entrance-doom and the ice-chamber door co2.

B B is the cool room or preservingchamber, so constructed as to have a higher and lower part, convenient for hanging up or stowingl away larger and smaller articles,as may be desired.

D' and I)Z are ice-pans having two or more cold-air passages, E E, which are lined with sheet metal, which connects with a top covering of sheet metal turned up at the edge all around, so as to form a perfect water-tight pan. The drip-pans f f are arranged under the cold-air passages E E.

I build the ice-pan D so that it fills up the entire width of the cooler from the front to the back, and place it so that it is close up against one end, and support it from the Walls A A,

or by cleats g, attached to the same, thus leaving no openings between it and the walls on three sides. This ice-pan D is placed much lower down than usual,which brings the bulk of the ice much nearer to the bottom of the coolerat one end and leaves a large space for ice in the chamber C above it. The second ice-pan, D2, is placed higher up, so that the sheet-metal covering of it overlaps into the pan D', so as to catch the drip. This pan also fills up the entire width of the cooler from the front to the back, and is supported in the same manner. Between this pan D2 and the end of the cooler a warm-air passage, H, is left. The chamber C2 above the pan D2 is much less in height, it only being necessary to provide for a small amount of ice at one time on the pan D2. By this yplan I am able to build coolers and refrigerators so that one part of the cool room B B is high enough for a man to stand erect in, and all parts of the lower apartment are available and accessible for the uses and purposes of a cool room or refrigerator, and at the same time very much reduce the whole height of the cooler or refrigerator; and also by this plan of construction I obtain a better circulation of cold air in the room B B, and I can hold a lower even temperature in the room B B with a less amount of ice consumed per day for the same area of room than any of the old methods now in use. There being a large bulk of ice on the pan D', a heavy volume of cold air is forced down through the passages E E, and flows down direct to the bottom of the room B, as indicated by the darts and dotted lines, and spreads out and ows along the bottom of the room, and, becoming Warmer as lit reaches the other end, rises up and passes through the opening H; but there being aless bulk of ice on the pan D2,a less volume of cold air is forced down through the passages E E, which circulates in part in the space'more immediately under the pans, and also iiows down and strikes the greater volume flowing along from the greater bulk of ice in the pan D', thus tending to confine it to the bottom of the room, while at the same time it spreads out and compresses the rising column of warmer air close against the end of the room, and up through the warm-air passage H, thus producing a more perfect and a more rapid course of circulation.

I design to use two or more ice-pans ar= IOC ranged in this way side by side, rising up like a series of steps, according to the capacity of the cooler or refrigerator required.

Having thus described my invention and its principle of working, and its relation to the present manner of constructing coolers and refrigerators, I am aware that there are in use. various special constructions of ice-pans for coolers and refrigerators. I therefore do not claim any special or particular construction of an ice-pan; but

What I do claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The co1ubination,wth a refrigerator-casing, A, of upper and lower cleats or supports, g, the upper and lower transverse drip-pansff, and the ice pans D D2, supported by said cleats one above and at one end of the other and provided between their sides with vertical iiues E, depending below the bottoms of the zo ice-pans and terminating above the drip-pans, said ice-pans extending from side to side of the easing, and the upper pan at one end overlapping the lower pan and at the other end separated from the easing to provide the vertical 25 warm-air flue H, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

BENJAMIN ABBOTT STEVENS.

Witnesses:

WM. F. JOHNSTON, M. G. BLOCH. 

